


World Stood Still

by quiet__tiger



Category: Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Contemplative, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 00:51:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10820280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: There's a protest at Tim's school, and at first everything is fine. Until all of a sudden it's not.





	World Stood Still

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Shock."
> 
> Loosely inspired by Billy Idol's "Shock to the System."
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal 1st-Apr-2010.

Tim looked around himself at the hundreds of students marching in protest. Even though they’d been out there a few hours, only a handful had given up and sat on the bleachers. The rest kept their pace, a sea of black shirts against the springy red material of the track and the green grass in which it sat.

The students were protesting a massive layoff of teachers and staff at the high school by wearing black and walking the track. There were reporters on the end of the track nearest the road, trying to get sound bites for the evening news or Twitter updates. Police officers were spread out in an attempt to preserve order.

Tim joined the protest for two reasons, one being he believed that the teachers and staff shouldn’t have been fired, especially not all at once when the school system was already sliding toward the lower end of the spectrum. Also, he’d been out late as Robin and didn’t want to sit through classes.

It was a nice morning, no rain and not a hundred degrees, and Tim didn’t mind walking. Really, it had been a good day.

Until he caught the sound of a scuffle behind him, then shouting.

He whirled around and almost set himself in a defensive Robin stance, but he would have stood out like Superman against the curious but unworried teens. The fight was between five teens and two officers, but by the time Tim did an inventory of just how many cops there were versus teens and where there were exits, then looked back, the numbers had doubled and looked as if they were going to at least triple.

He started towards the fight, but realized he wouldn’t be of use if he got handcuffed or Tasered. He glanced around again looking for a place to change into his costume, but he was basically in the middle of a field with hundreds of people, and by the time he found a place to change it might be too late.

How did Bruce and Clark _do_ this all the time at fundraisers and parties and _work_?

Trying to be proactive and keep the riot from spreading, Tim started herding students away from the concentration of police officers and students fighting. By this time most of the students not already involved in the fight had sort of swarmed to the gates for the fence around the track, but plenty were just standing around panicking, or being assholes about helping everyone get outside.

While gently pushing a couple of classmates in the right direction, Tim heard the cries rise in volume and saw that the cops had started using tear gas.

All of a sudden this was out of his hands.

Hand-to-hand was one thing, but tear gas wouldn’t lead anywhere good.

Non-lethal force to harder non-lethal force, and surely there wouldn’t be _lethal_ force, but Tim had seen things get out of control before, and right now his school was a few steps from making the national news for a death.

He took a second to pray that none of the students was carrying a firearm.

In his mind's eye the riot just kept escalating to include everyone, becoming a massive brawl on the field, red painting the grass, and all because he couldn't move fast enough...

Tim ducked to the side and surreptitiously dug his Titans communicator out of his pocket. He started sending a message to Kon, but then realized Bart would be faster and would definitely understand his Morse code.

He tapped a quick message into it, and less than two minutes later there was chaos at the center of the riot. A hard wind seemed to rip nightsticks and makeshift weapons out of grasping hands, and rioters turned left and right in shock wondering what was going on. Then there was a visible funnel of dirt and light debris that must be carrying away the gas.

The very existence of the unknown presence seemed to be enough to stop the riot as students and cops stopped what they were doing and looked around. In the time it took everyone to realize whatever it was was gone, the principal was out writing detention slips and trying to convince the police not to arrest anyone.

Tim heaved a sigh of relief, glad the confusion was enough to quell everyone’s anger. He wasn’t sure what started the riot, but no doubt it was completely unwarranted, either a sparked temper or a misunderstanding. Angry teens and frustrated police weren’t a good combination.

He grew cold as he thought about how he knew most of the students around him, and that rather than just random violence on the streets of Gotham, this happened here, on his home turf. The whole thing could have escalated much too quickly to stop a horrible situation. Enough of his friends and family had died, and he didn’t need the Fates to start picking off his classmates, too.

After getting himself under control, Tim went around and made himself useful with his knowledge of first aid. He also tried to use Bruce’s psychology training to make those around him calm--get the ones who were crying to stop, and the ones who were angry to relax.

The riot started out of nothing, and soon became nothing again as students either went home or filed inside to finish out the rest of the day of classes. It didn’t appear that any serious charges were being pressed, and there weren’t too many injuries more serious than scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Everyone had been too spread out or not rushed for a stampede, and it was over fast enough.

Debating whether to go inside or go home, the choice was made when he spotted a thin brown haired boy across the street from the track. He hopped the fence, walked quickly around a news van, careful not to make eye contact or draw attention to himself, and met up with his friend.

They walked around the corner before Tim allowed himself to give in and give Bart a quick hug. “Thanks. You really saved my school. I just couldn’t get away without risking being caught or the riot getting way out of control. And it just happened so fast…” He didn’t want to admit his fear to Bart, but he thought maybe his friend could feel it.

“No problem, Rob. I’m always glad to help. This was way more fun than being in school.” Bart grinned at him, yellow eyes bright. Tim knew that Bart and school didn’t mix well because it went far too slow for the speedster. “Speaking of, you want to take the rest of the day off? I’m probably already grounded for leaving social studies.”

The side of Tim’s mouth lifted in a smile. “I guess we should take advantage of the time we have then before you’re stuck inside for a month.”

“Pizza and a movie?”

“My treat as a thank you.”

“You’re on.”

“By the way, where’d you put the weapons you took away?”

“Dumped them in the river.”

“Good.”

They walked to the nearest theater, and by unspoken agreement they went to see the only comedy that was playing. They didn’t need to watch something with blood and violence or anything related to the real world. They got enough of it already.

And Tim was going to enjoy a little hooky.


End file.
